Maori 'leader' in native tongue development (fwd)

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Maori 'leader' in native tongue development
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2807481a7694,00.html

SATURDAY , 07 FEBRUARY 2004

Maori lead the world in indigenous language development, a visiting
Native American academic says.


Rocky Mountain College American Indian Affairs vice-president Janine
Pease was one of 30 indigenous people from 11 North American and
Canadian Indian nations visiting celebrations to mark the signing of
the Treaty of Waitangi at Hamilton's Innes Common yesterday.

The group is visiting Maori language schools to help develop total
immersion programmes for their people.

"What is going on here is revolutionary, with Maori language immersion
from infancy to doctorate level.

"Maori are world leaders in indigenous educational rights," she said.
"American Indians are at square one; on a scale of one to 10 Maori are
a 10."

Ms Pease said her people in the late 1800s signed the Laramie Treaty,
which was equivalent to the Treaty of Waitangi.

She said the Crow experienced a similar erosion of rights to Maori since
that treaty was signed.

That decline has seen the original reservation size shrink from 15,000
sq km to 3000 sq km today.

"We have seen our rights diminish based on trials and the court."

She said there was not a state celebration of the treaty signing but her
people gathered each year to celebrate the event.

There, 10,000 people stay in 1600 teepees and dance, race horses and
feast.

British Columbia Carrier tribe representative Murphy Patrick said there
was no national treaty signing celebration in Canada either. It was
good to see Maori fighting for sovereignty and cultural rights.